Expert: Andre Hickman - 12/9/2011

Question
Hi. I'm Katie, and I live in Escondido, California. I'm 14. What really good 3D animation programs are out there that I can use at home? I don't even own a mac, so it should work on PCs. I hope you can answer. Thanks!!! :)

Answer
Hey Katie,

You don't a MAC?!! How do you expect to do 3D?!!

Well, welcome to the club...I don't own a mac either! Don't believe the hype that you've heard.  Most of the big 3D programs actually started on PC, and some of them were never ported to the mac platform. PC is where it's at baby!!!

For you, there is only one program that I personally would point you to, and that is POSER.  It will let you create and animate 3D scenes without having to learn how to model and rig characters and objects.  It will let you get your feet wet, and see if you really even like keyframing animation, and doing the behind the scenes work of 3D animation.

you can find more info here:
http://poser.smithmicro.com/poser.html

they have a PRO version, and it looks like they now have a "DEBUT" version, which is much less expensive than the standard version, so maybe you can start there, or if you have the available funds, go standard.  

Just do some searches on "poser", "Poser art", "poser animation", etc. to see what people are doing with it...and happy learning!

NOTE: There are also tons of 3rd party content to add objects, clothing, characters, etc...A good place to start looking for extras would be Daz.com in addition to free content out there on the web.


Cheers,
Andre